The House on Moore Street

As far as they were concerned life was good, but they did catch a lot of grief from their parents over their relationship. They tried not to let it bother them, too much anyway, even though it was difficult, having been so close to their parents to begin with. Eventually though everything worked itself out and both sets of parents came to accept things as they were.

What helped in bringing their parents acceptance about was one day Linda Richards and Paula Byrne visited their daughters at the house on Moore Street. Not knowing the reason for their moms' unexpected visit, at first the atmosphere was charged. Yet Susan and Evie were resolved to make it clear to them once and for all they were a couple. Contrary to what they thought though, their mothers had not come to argue, instead, they had come to express their understanding and support. They explained, ever since they were little they'd heard the rumors about what had gone on in the house since...forever.

Paula said half-jokily, "Yeah, it's almost like a family tradition in this house."

Linda added, "Admittedly our first reaction was knee-jerk. It was like 'oh no, not again', but we really do understand. We just want you to be happy, that's all." Looking at her daughter she asked, "I guess it was you who had the conversation with Aunt Mamie?"

Susan nodded and said, "When I was fifteen."

Linda replied, "I thought so when you started spending so much time with her. It was one of the things the family talked about having happened every other generation or so. How one spring or summer, all the girls of a certain age span would visit and talk with...well, whoever the lady of the house was at the time. Then one girl would always start spending a lot of extra time here. In your case, it was Aunt Mamie. For Mamie it was her grandmother, Clara Moore." Before Susan could even respond, her mother saw the answer in her daughters eyes, knew she was right when she asked, "I suppose one day you'll make a choice too?"

Susan only nodded in response, somehow instinctively knowing she would be doing exactly that one day.

The sisters looked to each other and nodded, silently acknowledging what had been for them before this only family rumor and innuendo, was now a confirmed, and without question fact. They smiled at one another then looked to their daughters.

Linda went on, "Please believe me when I say we do understand. We're old enough to remember Aunt Mary and Uncle Harvey. Sadly, they died before you were born Evelyn. Susan, you were only about five when it happened so I doubt you remember them at all, but we do."

Paula picked the story up, "We remember how happy they were together, how much the three of them were in love. They were strong, and absolutely devoted to one another. Nothing could ever tear them apart, not what people thought, not what people said. Their love was greater than anything that could ever do them harm."

"Even death," Linda interjected.

Nodding her agreement Paula went on, "You see Aunt Mary talked to us too, maybe not for the same reasons Mamie did with you, but we talked. So you see...we do understand better than you think."

Linda assured her daughter and niece, "Don't worry about your dads, we'll explain things, smooth it all out. Everything will be okay. You see we also remember Aunt Mabel, how she shut herself out of her sisters' lives, and later regretted it."

"That's one thing we don't want to happen with us. We want you in our lives, you're family, you're our babies," Paula said on the verge of tears.

Emotional as well, Linda said, "Remember, we love you both and just want you to be happy."

"And we can see that's just what you are," Paula added. The four women stood and embraced, as mothers do daughters. After a few tears of happiness, hugs, and kisses, the older women left.

"Well," observed Evie while they stood on the porch watching their moms drive away, "that went better than I thought it would when they just showed up like that. I thought it was going to be some sort of intervention."

Susan smiled, took her lover into her arms, and kissed her. Afterwards, their arms still around each other she said, "I think we have a lot to live up to."

Evie nodded her agreement, and then kissed Susan again.

Chapter 11

The women lived together in the home great Aunt Mamie left Susan for the next forty-five years, until Susan passed away at age seventy-two. Evie stayed until she died three years later, some say of a broken heart.

During those forty-five years, a lot happened. Susan continued working as a lighting designer and opened her own firm a few years after Evie moved in. Although at first unsure about going out on her own, Evie encouraged and pushed her. Despite her initial reluctance, the business proved a very successful endeavor and Susan never regretted having taken the chance.

Midyear, their first year together, Susan finally convinced Evie to go to culinary school. Quickly, she came to be recognized as a phenomenon in the industry. Even though like all students just out of school Evie started on the bottom rung of her profession, her talents quickly became apparent and she rapidly rose to the top. Although Evie was offered many jobs with big name chefs, restaurants, and hotels in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, Toronto, and even as far away as Paris, Rome, and Melbourne, she was never tempted, she would never leave Susan. Eventually though, Evie did open her own place in town, and right from the start it remained in the top percentile of fine dining establishments.

A little less than two years after Evie moved in, Tom proposed to Susan. She was thrilled, but asked for a little time to sort out her feelings and talk with Evie before giving him an answer. A few days later while they sat in her parlor, she let Tom know about her relationship with Evie, without holding anything back. Essentially, she told him it was a package deal; she'd marry him only if he could accept Evie in their marriage with equal stature, and only if they could all live in this house together.

Given Susan's unusual and unexpected response to his proposal, Tom also took time to think. While he had noticed subtle changes in Susan since Evie moved in, it had been more along the lines of her being more relaxed, happier. But this! In retrospect, he found in the past two years he had suspected nothing about Susan and her cousin's extraordinary relationship. After more thought he realized in spite of that relationship, Susan hadn't treated him any differently than she had before Evie came onto the scene, in fact to the contrary, he felt they had grown much closer. Nor had she ever stood him up, or turned him down in favor of spending time with the girl instead. Susan had been direct and unambiguous when she explained the situation between Evie and her to him. He concluded therefore, he must also mean something important to Susan. Tom also recognized Evie had become a good and trusted friend, and admitted to himself that he truly liked the girl, and not just for Susan's sake either. As far as Susan's demand they live in the house on Moore Street, he had no problem with that, it was a good address and a great old house. 'Perhaps this could work,' he thought.

Yet Tom still had issues. Although Susan suggested she would be willing to marry him, her assertion that Evie would share equal stature in their life floored him. His basic beliefs battled his heart when he thought of sharing Susan with anyone, male or female. The male ego and his moral core battled with his desire to accept, albeit reluctantly, Susan's desire for a feminine touch. Even though he wasn't a regular churchgoer, his reason battled religious tenets over the incest issue. However, in the end he found his love for Susan too deep to let her go, and accepted her terms, even though it meant sharing her and accepting the other things as well. Early in the evening, the day after he made his decision, Tom stopped by the Victorian house to give Susan his answer.

Although Susan prayed he would, had indeed been on pins and needles about the whole thing while she waited, Susan was nonetheless delighted when Tom told her he accepted her conditions. On impulse she threw herself into his arms, hugged, and kissed him passionately, saying excitedly, "Thank you, oh thank you, I love you so very much. You won't regret this Tom, I love you, I really do love you."

After more hugs and kisses, Tom held Susan in his arms and said, as he looked deep into her eyes, "I love you too Susan. I love you enough to share you with someone and not dwell on it, to accept it and not let it bother me."

At first unsure of what Tom meant, it quickly dawned on her he had misunderstood her conditions for accepting his proposal. With a broad grin Susan said, "I think we need to explain something to you." Susan called Evie into the room, and both spelled out their shared wish to him.

As floored as Tom had been when Susan first told him about Evie, it was nothing compared to his astonishment when the women explained to him what they meant by 'equal stature'. They explained Evie too would be his wife in every sense of the word, except the legal and not just Susan's lover, that their intent was to be a family unit.

Tom had never fantasized about having a threesome or watching two women make love. The idea didn't repulse him, not at all, but it wasn't something he really sought out either. In all honesty, although Tom was a good lover, he was somewhat strait-laced when it came to sex. While he was skeptical, not believing jealousy or other problems wouldn't raise their ugly heads, he nonetheless agreed to the women's proposition. To his never-ending surprise, in the forty-five years the three of them lived together, problems of that sort never arose, not even once.

Over time, just as they had expanded their own horizons, Evie and Susan introduced Tom to new sexual dimensions, mutual masturbation, anal sex, toys, and more. After a while, even though at first he thought he'd feel threatened by it, Tom had to admit he'd come to love watching Susan and Evie make love.

Starting about two years after Tom and Susan were married, the women each bore two children, a boy and a girl apiece, with not more than four and a half years separating the youngest and oldest. Susan's daughter Paulette was born first followed ten months later by Evie's son Marc. Two years later, Susan bore Tom, Jr. and Evie had Aimee another year after that. The four children were raised in a loving, supportive, and nurturing environment with the truth of their parent's unorthodox relationship never hidden from them.

For the rest of their lives, Susan and Evie's love never wavered or diminished one iota. Their love and passion for one another burned as brightly, and as hot on the last day of Susan's life, as it had on the first day of their falling in love. Truthfully, even after Susan's death Evie never stopped loving her.

Both women loved and desired Tom just as deeply, just as passionately, as they did each other. Tom never felt he was the odd man out, he knew he was an equal part of a three spoke wheel. He had a long and happy life with both women, never once regretting having entered into this marriage.

When Susan left them, they each felt as if the greater part of them had died too. Their sorrow was inconsolable, and but for still having each other surely would have lost the will for living themselves.

After Susan passed away in her sleep at the age of seventy-two, Evie and Tom finally made their relationship legal. They didn't need, nor seek the state's approval of their relationship, but it was what Susan asked them to do in her will. They complied with Susan's wishes and remained together in the house until Evie died three years later.

Alone now that both loves were gone, Tom couldn't stand being in the big old house he had called home for the past forty-five years any longer. After making arrangements for himself, he signed the property over to the grandchild Susan had wanted to have the house.

Some years earlier, just as great Aunt Mamie and Grandma Clara had done before her, Susan made a special effort to talk with each of the young females of her family. One day that particular spring, Susan was seated alone in her parlor, staring out the window, a book she'd been reading resting on her lap. Watching a bird building a nest in the tree outside the window she felt a sudden presence in the room, then a voice softly calling her name. Looking about she saw no one, but Susan was just as sure someone was there as she was of her love for Evie and Tom. "Who's there?" a disconcerted and mildly alarmed Susan asked.

"There's nothing to fear Susan, you know me. I've visited before, many years ago when Evie first came to live in this house. Before you, I visited Mamie, and before her, Clara. I've been here all along Susan, every day since Matthew finished this house, a very long time indeed."

Remembering, calmness came over Susan and she felt soothed, at peace, and relaxed, no fear whatsoever remained. It was like welcoming an old and dear friend home after a long absence. Settling back into her seat Susan commented, "I've been waiting for you. It's been a long time."

"Yes, it has. But now it's time again Susan," the Presence responded simply.

"Time? Time for what?"

"It's time to choose she who follows you."

Although Susan wasn't sure how she did, she responded, "Oh, yes, I understand now." She thought for several long moments then asked with a frown, "But who do I choose, how do I choose?"

"I cannot help with that Susan. The burden of making the choice is yours, mine is to prepare the way for the one who is chosen."

"I see," was Susan's only response.

Still not knowing exactly how she would select the one girl from among the many, during that summer Susan gathered seventeen of her young female relatives to her home on one pretense or another, and spoke casually with each in turn. The girls ranged in age from eight to twenty-five. She studied them, looking into their eyes as they talked about a wide range of subjects, seemingly disconnected conversations, but all sharing a common goal. In the end, Susan knew when she'd finished talking with her that her eleven-year-old granddaughter Gabriella was the one she would choose.

The Presence who had been mute since their last conversation said at that moment, "You have chosen well Susan. Gabriella is the one who will follow."

Like a common thread of previous events, Susan and Gabriella spent a great deal more time together after her 'selection' than they had before. Susan imparted upon her granddaughter the family history and its role in the city's development. She taught the young lady about all the people who had lived in the home, without going into their unique relationships to, and with each other. She carefully related the story of the old house, how it was built as a testament of one man's love for his lady. She explained how their love had been so strong that even today it seemed to permeate the home, and whose love had been built upon with successive occupants. The one thing Susan didn't tell Gabriella, even though it had been right on the tip of her tongue on more than one occasion, was about the Presence that one day would visit her, just as it had every woman who had owned the house before her.

Ten years passed before Gabriella, twenty-one, moved into the old Victorian house just before her grandfather moved out. A year later, Aimee's granddaughter Maggie moved into the house on Moore Street with Gabriella.

Meanwhile the Presence waited patiently, waiting for the time to come when it would forge yet another link in the never-ending chain of bonding two loves in the house that Matthew Moore built.